Not every business model you dislike is rent seeking. I really wish people would quit throwing that term around -- it means something and it's very rare that I see it used properly.
Cisco's value is in their huge userbase, (at least historically, not sure what the story is recently) access to their TAC, and their ability to absorb finger-pointing. They're expensive, they throw their weight around, there's more exciting or outright better options, but to claim they're providing little to no value for the money you pay them is absurd.
You're right, I did abuse the term "rent seeking" but history really does show that high margin businesses would rather go out of business than stay competitive.
If people weren't afraid of China, Cisco would be gone already.
If Xi could have just put off the scary behavior to his successor, our carmakers and other major industries would have put themselves out of their misery too. (e.g. GM's plan is to have electric Cadillacs and I guess everybody else rides a bike)
There was a short window in the late 90s where Cisco (and maybe one or two others) were the only companies providing something that was suddenly in high demand.
Most networking people know you can get the performance of Cisco gear for a fraction of the price - but the rest of that price is basically insurance that it won’t fail.
I’d never pay full price for it for myself, but every time I’ve worked with Cisco gear it’s been quite nice.
You bemoan rent seeking but seem to adore China which is the ultimate rent seeker as it bans companies and competition arbitrarily than any other nation.
> You bemoan rent seeking but seem to adore China which is the ultimate rent seeker as it bans companies and competition arbitrarily than any other nation.
China doesn't ban "companies and competition arbitrarily," they have fairly clear goals which are just different than those of neoliberal free-market types.
Look how entire effin' world treated them up to this point - exactly as ultra low wage servants and slaves.
Read a bit about british opium wars if you actually care about the topic. We got so used to cheap chinese goods, yet nobody gave a nano fraction of a fuck that fellow human beings destroyed their lives in horrible conditions absolutely unacceptable anywhete in the west, including children just that you could have (massively overpriced) iphone or some fashion sneakers. I am still waiting on a single social justice warrior here to abandon say Apple brand because of frequent suicides at their Foxconn plants.
How long did you expect them to bow and work for nothing? What goes around, comes around eventually. West really doesnt have any moral upper hand here, I wish people had a bit more humility.
Sinophiles bellyache about the opium war but conveniently forget recent history.
Read about events during WW2: The US supported China in WW2 which happened much recently than the opium wars.
Read about events after WW2: The US/West gave China economic prosperity through asymmetric deals that decimated the Western middle class while China continued to grow at the expense of the West (through unfair trade deals, outright theft, flagrant violations of international labor and pollution standards, etc.).
Instead of a fake humility, I really wish people read more.
Only so long till China can rent seek from the world before the world says no.
It is not just the West that has an issue with China. India, Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan all have issues. Last time I saw a map, they were not in the West.
There are very few actual sinophiles in the western-aligned democracies, and I sure as hell ain't one of them, I have no stake in US-China hate wars. This is not some Trump rally where ad hominem attacks end any discussion and you triumphally ride to sunset.
The only reason west gave them work was they were so brutally cheap, and people simply didnt care why. Even if quality was lacking. It was west doing its own shooting in its own foot, everybody knew what kind of deal they get with China, but greed and immediqte profits overshadowed everything else. Dont blame stupidity on anybody but stupid.
They set the rules on their own soil and followed through, nothing more. No big fan of them, but instead of childish demonizing which got us nowhere in past 2 decades, what about smarting up a bit and understanding both sides and what led up to this situation.
Does the chinese government not have a say in this? This is like saying the consumers of US cotton before 1860s were responsible for slavery in the US. Consumers & companies are complicit, but the Chinese government is surely the primary author of the policies that permit the horrible conditions in those factories.
Cisco's value is in their huge userbase, (at least historically, not sure what the story is recently) access to their TAC, and their ability to absorb finger-pointing. They're expensive, they throw their weight around, there's more exciting or outright better options, but to claim they're providing little to no value for the money you pay them is absurd.